Interest has arisen in fermentation of carbohydrate-rich biomass to p provide alternatives to petrochemical sources for fuels and organic chemical precursors. There is great interest in using lignocellulosic feedstocks where the plant cellulose is broken down to sugars and subsequently converted to desired end products, such as organic chemical precursors. Lignocellulosic biomass is primarily composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Cellulose and hemicellulose can be hydrolyzed in a saccharification process to sugars that can be subsequently converted to various products via fermentation. The major fermentable sugars from lignocelluloses are glucose and xylose. For economical ethanol yields, a process that can effectively convert all the major sugars present in cellulosic feedstock would be highly desirable.